


the way we are

by harinezumi_kun



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-14
Updated: 2010-07-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 08:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harinezumi_kun/pseuds/harinezumi_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>nino is a touching man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the way we are

Ohno has never been touched in the way Nino touches him. It is immediate, constant, intimate, and assumes a permission that Ohno doesn’t really remember giving. 

He does remember someone saying once “That’s just the way he is”, and he takes the statement at face value. That’s just how Nino is, this is just what it’s like to be his friend. And Ohno doesn’t really mind.

So he allows Nino to lean against him in green rooms, on sets, on the train home. On couches that could easily fit three more people, they are always shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip and Ohno starts to count on it, and finds himself drifting towards Nino on the rare occasions when the other man is not immediately at his side. 

He accepts Nino’s arm around his shoulder, his waist, and Nino’s hand slipping into his—not the simple palm against palm of children crossing the street, but the more intimate and somehow infinitely more comfortable fitting together of fingers between fingers that feels so natural and easy. He accepts Nino draped across him in hotel beds—or any time, really—and pressed tight against his back during filming or rehearsals or meetings. He doesn’t think about what this means, he doesn’t have to. He knows he likes Nino—they’re friends, they’re bandmates, they’re always together—of course he likes Nino.

But the first time Nino kisses him, Ohno thinks he might like Nino a little more than as just a friend. 

As with most of the things Nino does, it’s a joke—impromptu, meant to get a reaction—and it’s there and gone in a heartbeat. Aiba laughs, Jun complains, Sho looks vaguely amused (later, Ohno realizes he was expecting Sho to be shocked), and Ohno is too surprised to react at all. This makes Nino scowl—apparently he was expecting more yelling and flailing—and the scowl makes Ohno grin.

But something changed with that kiss. It wasn’t a sudden, shocking, electric, fire-laced kind of change. It was more like “Huh”.

And next time, because he’s been thinking about it and waiting for it, there is a jolt. There’s a swoop, and enough time for Ohno to think “Ah, this…” before Nino pulls away to see if he got a better reaction with this try. But Ohno keeps a straight face, and Nino pouts for a few minutes before snapping open his DS and using Ohno as a pillow.

Ohno never reacts, because if Nino gets that reaction he might stop, and Ohno definitely does not want Nino to stop. Eventually it just becomes something else they do, something that makes other people laugh or roll their eyes. Eventually, even Nino stops doing it for a reaction and does it just because he can, because it’s something else that Ohno allows him.

Nino’s kisses are Ohno’s favorites. They are different from the kisses he gets from the girls he goes out with, different from the kisses he (occasionally) gets from the other members. Nino’s kisses are like a whole language, one that he only speaks to Ohno and that Ohno is willing to spend vast amounts of patience learning. He hears “hello” in a kiss on the cheek, or “sorry” in a quick press of lips to his shoulder, or “thank you” brushed against his knuckles. But, no, it’s not just the kisses, he realizes—it’s the kisses and the touches, how they are combined and varied, it’s about timing, and inches, about Nino’s thumb against the pulse in Ohno’s wrist or Nino’s knee pressed not-quite-uncomfortably into Ohno’s side.

But still, Ohno never says anything, never does anything about the dizzying warmth he still feels in Nino’s kisses, because this is—and always has been—just the way Nino is. He speaks in touches and kisses and it’s just normal for him, it’s not special, it’s not what Ohno wants it to be, surely, because if it was, Nino would just _say_ something, wouldn’t he?

Because there are those moments when suddenly and miraculously it is just the two of them, alone, and maybe they are laughing or talking when the inevitable pause comes and they glance up at the same time and Ohno is suddenly reminded of just how close Nino is sitting, can feel the weight of every inch of space between them, and finds his gaze drifting to Nino’s mouth, can hear his own breath puffing out through slightly parted lips, and thinks maybe this time, maybe…

And it’s always Nino who looks away first. 

It’s frustrating, and unfair, and sometimes Ohno gets upset and just can’t stand it and those are the times he disappears for days on a fishing boat or into his studio. But in the end, he always gives in, he forgets that he was angry and just enjoys having Nino’s warmth next to him.

It becomes normal, routine, and people say “that’s just the way they are”.

Until something changes. Ohno should have known it would, eventually, thinks maybe he did know all along, because good things never last (But maybe it wasn’t so good, he tells himself, maybe this is for the best).

Nino starts avoiding him. Not in front of the cameras—they have an image to uphold, after all—but back stage, around the office, after hours, Nino just isn’t there. He’s wedged between Sho and Aiba, or squeezed into the smallest chair in the room, or he’s already left by the time Ohno gets to the greenroom. Nino still laughs and makes snide comments and yells at his DS like he always did, but Ohno thinks he sees a strange tightness around the younger man’s eyes, and there is a definite stiffness to their on-camera skinship. 

But even more bizarre is that this avoidance is punctuated by sudden, brief bursts of their old closeness. When Ohno is least expecting it, there is Nino at his hip, his head dropping against Ohno’s shoulder and Ohno can feel the warmth of lips through the fabric of his t-shirt. Maybe it’s the clothing that’s in the way (Ohno shivers at the continuation of this thought), or maybe it’s all the time in between, but Ohno finds he can’t understand Nino’s kisses anymore. 

_One day he pushes open the door to their dressing room and in the split second before the people on the other side realize he’s there, he hears Nino’s voice saying “—can’t keep doing this—” and then dead silence when he enters._

Or maybe Ohno doesn’t want to understand, because these kisses sound too much like “goodbye”.

So Ohno is surprised when Nino shows up at his house, uninvited. It is the middle of the day and no one else is home, but Ohno takes Nino up to his room anyway, because it looks like Nino has something important to say and he doesn’t want any interruptions.

After closing the door, Ohno crosses to the bed and sits, but Nino remains standing, hovering in the threshold and looking around the room with an odd little smile. The afternoon sunlight through Ohno’s thin white curtains makes the room a strange combination of too bright and too dim, and it seems like he is watching Nino through a fog. He can’t really see Nino’s face, can’t tell what he’s thinking, and wants desperately for Nino to just come and sit down next to him, even if it’s only for a moment. The silence stretches and Ohno finds himself looking at Nino’s bare feet and thinking they must be cold and wondering if he should offer him socks.

He’s still staring at Nino’s feet when the other man starts to move, soles slapping softly against the hardwood, and suddenly Nino is on the bed, straddling Ohno’s lap, cradling Ohno’s face in his hands, and kissing him.

It is fiercer and more demanding than the kisses they have shared before, but Nino is still holding back. It is still just lips on lips, though Nino’s mouth is just slightly open, his kisses just a little wet, enough to make tiny smacking noises each time he pulls away.

“Oh-chan,” he says between kisses, “Oh-chan—say something, please—if you hate it, just say something—do something—anything, Oh-chan—”

It takes a moment for Ohno to realize what is going on, to think past the rush in his ears and actually hear what Nino is saying. He is hyper aware of all the places where they touch—lips and hips, and Nino’s palms hot and feverish against his cheeks, and Nino’s sharp little toes digging into his thighs. Ohno’s head is spinning, but he steals a breath between kisses and manages to catch Nino’s face in his own hands and hold the younger man still.

“Wait,” Ohno manages on a shaky exhale, “wait.”

Nino is trembling, watching Ohno with wide eyes, and Ohno realizes that Nino is completely terrified of what he has just done. He feels tension in every line of Nino’s body, ready to run, but Ohno holds him where he is.

Ohno smiles when he realizes—he can still understand Nino’s kisses, his touches, and he can hear Nino’s impatient voice in the space between them: 

_I am waiting. I’ve been waiting._

“Sorry I’m late,” Ohno whispers, before sliding a hand around the back of Nino’s head to bring them together again.

He feels how Nino wants to hurry, but Ohno wants to take his time. He tastes the spearmint at the corners of Nino’s mouth, slides his tongue slowly across Nino’s bottom lip—but Nino is already opening up to let him in, and it is a temptation Ohno just can’t resist.

And then Nino _moans_ , and something in Ohno snaps. Taking it slow, he thinks suddenly, is overrated.

Nino is on his back on the bed and Ohno has a hand up his shirt when the front door opens.

“Satoshi, I’m home! Oh, do we have a guest?”

Ohno presses his face into Nino’s neck and swears softly before answering. “Yeah, it’s just Nino.”

“Oh, wonderful, I’ll bring up some snacks!”

Ohno curses again, but when he looks down at Nino, the other man is just laughing, muffling the sound into his hand with little success.

“What is so funny?” Ohno demands, not bothering to mask his disappointment.

“You,” Nino says through his giggles. “This. Your mother.” He sits up and pushes Ohno off, straightening his clothing.

They sit in silence for a moment, but there is no awkwardness—Ohno thinks he can feel the contentment radiating off of Nino like heat, and their knees are just touching, and it’s like nothing ever changed. But it has changed. How can it be so different when it’s so the same?

“Nino,” Ohno says eventually, dancing his fingertips cautiously over the denim on Nino’s thigh.

“Hmm?” Nino looks up, smiling and smiling, like he’s just remembered how.

Ohno pauses. He’s looking for something, he needs something, but he’s not really sure what it is. Nino’s smile widens, and he leans in for another kiss, but in the moment before their lips touch, Ohno finds his words.

“Don’t go away again.”

Nino stops, hovering, so close that all Ohno can see are Nino’s eyes, dark and brown and liquid. They crinkle up at the edges a little before they close. Nino kisses him, soft and slow like a promise.

_Never ever, never again._

When Ohno’s mother comes in a few minutes later, Ohno and Nino are still comfortably side by side, but she just shakes her head and smiles. Because they’re just the same as they ever were, despite everything. 

“It’s fine,” she would tell anyone who asked, “that’s just the way they are.”

**Author's Note:**

> mostly i just wanted some ohmiya lovin', and i was thinking about the interview where ohno called nino a "touching man".


End file.
